Thoughts on everyday life and inspiring others to contribute to life in a positive way.

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Friday, October 11, 2013

The Lesson From Rafiki

Being the father
of one son and two daughters, I’ve watched my share of Disney movies.Still do, actually.One of my all-time favorites was one of the
older ones, Dumbo.I’ve watched
that one over and over, like I did with Mary Poppins and several others.

Wil never had one
favorite.He sort of liked them all, especially
the comedies because he loves to laugh.Emily’s
favorite is Mulan. It fits her.It’s the story of a girl hero in a man’s
world, with a love story woven in.My
little romantic.(I think you can see my
smile and hear my sigh, can’t you?)Hannah’s
favorite is The Little Mermaid.It fits Hannah because it’s a story of a girl who
follows her heart and pursues her dreams, trying desperately not to disappoint
her dad.(Yeah, another smile and another
sigh!)

But there is yet
another, Lion King, I’d like to write about.Specifically, The Lesson From Rafiki.

I was reminded
of it earlier this week when we had an assembly for the kids at my school.The presenter mentioned it to the kids and a
light bulb went on in my head.It reminded
me of one of the themes I’ve presented often in my posts.

Remember the
scene when Simba, the young son of Mufasa, was feeling sorry for himself?Rafiki bopped him on the head with his
staff.Simba said, “Ouch! What was that
for?”Rafiki mumbles, “Don’t worry about
it.It’s in the past.”Simba complains, “Well, the past hurt.” Rafiki answers, “You
have two choices.You can learn from it
or run from it.”

The Lesson From
Rafiki . . . learn from your past or run from it.

Yes, sometimes
the past hurts.One’s past can hurt a
great deal.I don’t want to minimize
that because I’ve worked with kids and adults whose lives were anything but
painful, ugly and grotesque.

I get that
because I’ve seen it.To some degree, I’ve
felt it.

But sometimes, though, "remembering" the past can be distorted. Sometimes "remembering" the past can be much worse than what it actually was. Sometimes "remembering" the past, well, colors it to our way of thinking and what we actually "remember" about our past is actually rather fictional.

Recently, I
wrote a post titled No Excuses!In it, I
wrote about two young men who rose above their pasts.They rose above the pain and the life they
were born into.They made a choice and
that choice wasn’t to let the past ruin their future.

You know, we all
make mistakes.We’ve all made
mistakes.Some big, some small.We’ve tripped and we’ve stumbled.And for the most part, we’ve picked ourselves
up, dusted ourselves off, and we’ve moved on.

That’s one
choice.

One can spend so
much time living in the past . . . and blaming the past . . . that one forgets
to live in the present. We play ‘ain’t
it awful!’We point fingers, and generally, never
at ourselves.Because we spend so much
time wallowing in our past misery, an unbiased, objective observer might wonder
if we enjoy it so much that we don’t ever want to leave it.

Hmmm . . .

And if we are
that controlled by the past, if we dwell in the past, and if we don’t live in
the present, we have no future.None.

That’s the other
choice.

The Lesson From
Rafiki . . . learn from your past or run from it. And I believe that if we run from our past, we
end up actually never leaving it. We actually end up living in the past instead of running from it.

So really, when
you think about it, it’s not much of a choice.Actually, no choice at all.Something to think about . . .